A LOCAL alcohol support charity held its 40th anniversary AGM on Tuesday with a celebration to mark the valuable work carried out by their volunteers over the years.

Dumbarton Area Council on Alcohol (DACA) has been providing free one-to-one alcohol counselling and support services in the area since 1976.

During that time they have supported an estimated 7,500 people and in the past 20 years recruited and trained 140 volunteer counsellors from the local community.

More than 60 people attended the Volunteer Celebration in the Golden Jubilee Hotel (formerly the Beardmore Hotel) and watched as Provost Douglas McAllister presented awards and certificates to 30 volunteers who have worked with the charity during this time.

He also made special presentations to several long-serving volunteers who have provided decades of dedicated support to the service.

John Dalrymple, one of DACA’s first volunteer counsellors and a current volunteer board member was honoured for his 40 years of service to the agency, as was volunteer Chairman David Wilson who has been a board member for 20 years and Stuart Collins who has also been with the agency for 20 years, holding various roles including volunteer supervisor and board member.

Friends of DACA Helen Dempster and Sheila Campbell were also presented with bouquets of flowers for the dedicated support they have provided to the service over the years.

They both volunteered with the agency in its early days and continued providing informal support to the organisation as Friends of DACA.

Provost McAllister said: "To be marking 40 years of any organisation is an achievement but to be marking four decades of unstinting work which has made such a difference to so many peoples lives is remarkable and that is down to DACA’s dedicated team of volunteers and supporters.

"It is especially wonderful to see service users who go on to become volunteers themselves and help others who are struggling with alcohol. "We are aware that as a somewhat deprived area West Dunbartonshire is disproportionately affected by alcohol so we recognise the importance of having frontline services like DACA at the forefront of decision-making as this is something we could not hope to replicate."

DACA’s director, Cathie Dennett, who started with the agency as a volunteer counsellor 30 years ago, was unable to attend the celebration due to ill health.

Chairman David Wilson paid tribute to her years of dedicated service, saying: "Cathie has worked tirelessly for this organisation for many, many years; without her DACA would not be where it is today and she is so bitterly disappointed that she could not be here as she has put her life into DACA and has been central to planning celebrations across DACA’s 40th anniversary year."

After the formal celebrations there was time for clients, volunteers, staff and partners to take a trip down memory lane and look at the old photos, press cuttings and stalls exhibiting 40 years of DACA’s work in the community.

This included the charity’s pioneering complementary therapy work, their young person’s project, their internationally acclaimed Intermediate Labour Market training programme and the current Links to Learning project as well as the core one to one counselling and alcohol advice and information.